Colorful Cartagena

Cartagena was beautiful, colorful, dreamy and delicious. Think sweet ceviche, brightly painted walls, rooftop bars, and a whole lot of wandering the streets and popping in for a pina colada or five. We stayed five nights in Cartagena and it was a perfect amount of time to relax and leisurely explore. And to drink the local brews: Club Colombia and Aguila. While in Colombia, we also visited Bogota - a city you should not miss, read why here - and we trekked the Amazon jungle - which, if you're up to it, you should also do. Here's a video of all our stops:

Where to stay in Cartagena: 

There are several noteworthy sections of the city:

• The Old Town is fully enclosed by a 16th century wall, has squares, cobblestone streets and colorful colonial buildings and alleys. This is the tourist hub.
• Getsemaní is outside the wall but not far from the Old Town. This area used to be a bad neighborhood overrun with drug deals, but now has been turned into a hip area with boutique hotels and salsa bars. It does seem to have some grit to it still. 
• From the top of the wall in Old Town you'll see a coastline lined with skyscrapers, that is Bocagrande. It's basically the Miami of Colombia. 

We stayed in two hotels, the first was inside the walled city: Hotel Quadrifolio. It was absolutely adorable, with a big, open courtyard in the center and a pool. There are a ton of these little boutique hotels like this one in the Old Town - we walked by a bunch of them. They all look fabulous. If you are going to Cartagena, you really should stay in the Old Town, it is picturesque and very safe.

I typically don't think it matters if a hotel has a pool, but it is really, really hot and humid in Cartagena and taking an afternoon swim is just about the only thing you'll feel like doing at that time of the day.

Our second hotel was just outside the walls: Hotel Capellán de Getsemaní. It was a fabulous hotel, our room was fantastically icy cold. This was a great location in Getsemani, in walking distance to a lot of fun salsa bars, restaurants and one of the squares (be sure to visit the square at night - that's where the party starts). The restaurant in the hotel looks fabulous but the food was really unimpressive. The rooftop of this hotel, however, was inspiring. They turned the whole rooftop into an area to lounge with a pool and hot tubs, it was meandering, spacious, with private corners and nooks hidden away by greenery and flowers. The space was impeccably designed and almost even overshadows the amazing view of the city, you can even see Castillo San Felipe de Barajas from up there.

Things to do in Cartagena

Wander, explore, and avoid eye contact with the people selling bracelets, hats and rap songs. You will get hassled by guys selling things on the streets but they're harmless. Give them a firm 'no thank you' and they'll leave you alone.

All buildings are painted bright colors, all have balconies overlooking the street and have flowers exploding from every corner. The Old Town really isn't too big so wandering around it was pretty fun. Everywhere is walkable.

We didn't go to Castillo San Felipe de Barajas but saw it from the outside - we just heard from literally everyone that while it is a great, historic and cool spot, that its a totally miserable experience. There are hot and humid tunnels and you just get roasted by the sun. So we passed and saw it from afar.

We also passed on going to an island because we didn't want to miss a day in the city, we were having so much fun. I did, however do a bunch of research on the one I would recommend is Coralina Island, your hotel can likely arrange a trip there for you. It looks incredible.

Watching the sunset is a big thing here. You can get your hotel to make you a reservation at Cafe Del Mar where you can sip cocktails on top of the wall and watch the sunset or you can just walk to the top of the wall and buy 60 cent beers from the dude up there selling them and see the same sunset.

We didn't make a reservation at Cafe Del Mar and they were full so we just watched it with our 60 cent beers in hand and then felt like we'd been there and done that and didn't feel the urge to sit at Cafe Del Mar on another night.

Must eat spots in Cartagena:

I have some absolute must visit restaurants. La Cevicheria was closed while we were in town so I can't review that but I promise the internet will tell you to go. But I think it would be tough for it to have been better than El Boliche Cebicheria. Literally still coping with the face that I'll likely never eat their Tamarind Cebiche ever again.

Oh my god. While searching for their website link for this post, I found the ACTUAL RECIPE for their tamarind ceviche! Anyways go there, order their tamarind cebiche (literally the best thing ever, promise me you will), and now you can come home and try to make it! I know what we'll be doing this weekend. So good. Honestly it made me realize I didn't even know what ceviche was. We went two nights in a row. We also had their crab soup, it was good and had a ton of crab meat but we're kind of crab snobs in Texas and thought the crab wasn't as sweet as we're used to. We also got the hot stone dish which was good but like, nothing could possibly compare to the tamarind ceviche.

Ok second place you should go is La Picúa. While wandering around in Cartagena, you'll notice the Caribbean vibes are strong. This spot had incredible food, live music and lovely wines. We started with this ceviche dish, though on the menu I think it was actually in a section above ceviche - we just asked him what his favorites were and picked from those.

Kevin is a sucker for whole fried fish so this red snapper didn't last long. I also got a fish dish and absolutely loved it. But that ceviche was the real MVP. Along with their plate presentation. It is a teeny tiny little restaurant. I'd suggest asking your waiter for his favorite items and taking their advice, that's what we did and it did not disappoint.

Also, keep an eye out on menus for Ajiaco - this is a shockingly delicious soup dish. Yes, avocados here are as big as my face, but you put all the plated items in the soup and it was so good. I feel like it is kind of hard for soup to be THAT impressive but this was definitely worth trying. It is actually a traditional dish in Bogota but we first had it in Cartagena.

A good thing to note when sitting down to eat or drink, you'll feel like sitting outside to look at all the colors but people selling things will come up to your table to try to sell stuff so we finally got the hint and started sitting inside. And those child rappers are the MOST annoying. Do not let them rap to you, first of all it is annoying to everyone around you and second they force you to pay them after and then keep asking you for more money.

Also be ready for those bracelet sellers to offer you cocaine after you say no to a bracelet... we don't partake in that Colombian pastime so I don't have any reviews for you there, but we got offered it probably ten times in five days. We also heard that the area has really worked hard on cleaning Cartagena up and don't take kindly on those who don't respect that - so take that for what its worth. We DID feel very safe. We wandered the streets all day and night - and never felt unsafe.

The nightlife was great in Cartagena, there were salsa bars, chill bars, craft cocktail bars, and a lot of live music. We just wandered and followed our ears to new, fun spots. We happened upon the Townhouse rooftop bar and it was a total blast - I would definitely recommend checking it out. There was also a funny Russian inspired bar, Cuba 1940 is another spot that had live Caribbean music and bomb pina coladas, and there were a decent amount of fun bars around La Cevicheria.

Market tour: this was a great thing to do. This guy spoke perfect English and took us all through the crazy parts of the market to see everything from fruits to shark fins and pig faces. We also stopped for some incredible juices and a fresh fruit popsicle before heading in. The fruits here are wonderful, there are an insane amount of them that we've never even heard of.

The popsicle was just from a little window in a building where a little lady just hands them out to you. Keep an eye out for signs saying "helado" and be bold enough to order some of these. They are made with fresh fruit and are so good. This was a pineapple one and now popsicles will never be the same. Thanks Colombia. 

Cartagena Connections is the tour we used for the market - and I would recommend them. This is definitely not a place you should go without a local. We even had a concerned police officer tell us to be careful in the area. The tour's website says it well: "Dirty, smelling, sprawling mess. Pretty much everything you will ever read about the infamous people's market in Cartagena will reference the above description. There will also probably be some kind of mention of the thieves and pickpockets it allegedly harbours. It is all true. But if you discount it based only upon what you read, you are missing a place that is also incredibly vibrant; filled with coloured foodstuffs, the energy of frenetic commerce, the inherent warmth of the Costeno people and the widest smiles you will ever see."

We ate some fish from this stall, it was served with yucca root that was steamed in a banana leaf - the texture was similar to mashed potatoes. It was really good and, most importantly, no one got food poisoning. 

One afternoon we took a boat out for some fishing - we literally caught ZERO fish - but it was really fun being on the boat and watching the sunset from the water - take that Cafe Del Mar. It was beautiful and we got to zoom past a lot of islands where locals still live - without electricity. Here's a look at Bocagrande from the water. We didn't actually go to Bocagrande though, we're not really into the untz untz clubbing scene and heard the beaches are very crowded. I sound like a grandma.

Our second hotel was outside of the Old Town in Getsemaní, the area is definitely not as refined as inside the walls but I can appreciate some grit. Right when we got there, we were a little nervous that it wouldn't be as safe but we wandered around during the day and night with no issues. By the end, we were glad we got a little flavor of Getsemaní. The Old Town is so geared towards tourists that you feel like you're missing some of the local culture so two nights in Getsemaní was the perfect balance. There was a great restaurant called Demente in this area. We actually got rained in while at Demente - literally POURING rain - so we ended up sampling the local liquor of Colombia: shots of aguardiente. My skin still crawls thinking about it.

All the locals recommended eating at La Laguna Azul, which we hit up. It was good, but the ceviche was a little more like the typical ceviche we're used to - soaked in lime juice. It was no Boliche. But it was good, it is not however, in the location your phone maps say so I'd recommend asking a hotel person before walking out the door. 

Go, explore, relax, eat ceviche... Cartagena was really a great destination. It was super clean, very safe, and all the people we met were very nice. Bring Tums, all the lime juice almost ended me.

Another note for you, I always recommend registering with the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program or STEP program (registering with the US embassy in the country you are visiting). I've always done this so, in case something happens, they basically have no excuse not to rescue me. It's never really had to do anything for us before but when we were in Colombia, there were some major protests happening about government tuition for college and we did get some email alerts from them asking us to avoid universities which was helpful.